


something's telling me you're the one

by rocketshiptospace



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2018-02-11 11:53:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2067174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocketshiptospace/pseuds/rocketshiptospace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke opens his locker and a paper falls out, fluttering to the floor and landing in front of Luke’s feet. </p><p>He quirks a confused eyebrow and picks it off the floor, studying it closely. It’s a simple, hastily folded and very crumpled piece of yellow lined paper, obviously torn from a notebook.  </p><p>On it, written in a slightly messy handwriting he doesn’t recognize, is just one simple sentence.</p><p>‘Fuck them, I think your glasses look cute.’</p><p>or, luke has a crush on ashton, who's totally out of his league and someone's leaving him little love notes in his locker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	something's telling me you're the one

**Author's Note:**

> this took forever i dont even know why but it probably has something to do with the fact i thought it would be a good idea to handwrite this before i'd confert it to word because i didn't think it was going to b ethis long oops
> 
> anyway an anon asked for a high school au on tumblr so here you go sweetie, this one's for you :)))

“So then she was like ‘Yeah, sure’ so I think I have a date, but I’m  not sure since she was really distant after that, like, I don’t know, maybe she regrets saying yes? Or was it awkward between us because there suddenly was the possibility of us being a thing? But like she didn’t really sound excited about going on a date with me in the first place, you know? She just sounded so distracted in the first place, like ‘yeah, sure’ what kind of answer even is that? What do you think, Luke?” Calum says, nudging Luke in the ribs as they’re walking through the crowded school hallways on their way to their lockers.

Luke hums absentmindedly. “Yeah, totally, absolutely.”

Calum sighs loudly. “You are not even listening, are you?”

“What?” Luke says, finally tearing his eyes away from Ashton, the school’s football captain, who was walking about three feet ahead of them, animatedly chatting to his friends, and focusing on Calum.

 “You weren’t listening! I’m having a love crisis here and you’re not even listening! You’re a shitty best friend, Hemmings. What’s important than my love life anyway?” Calum huffs, and Luke’s eyes quickly dart towards Ashton, before he looks back to Calum an mumbles, “Nothing.”

But Calum has seen the quick diversion of Luke’s eyes and sighs loudly, for the second time that morning. “Oh come on, Luke, seriously?”

Luke blushes and looks at the toes of his shoes. “He looks cute today,” he mumbles.

Calum scoffs, “You say that every day.”

Luke wants to open his mouth, wants to say that it’s because Ashton always looks cute, _always,_ with his curled hair and bright eyes and dimpled smile and his never ending amount of enthusiasm for everything and that Ashton’s the actual personification of sunshine and never manages to brighten Luke’s day, but he knows Calum will probably hit him in the face with his shoulder bag if he does, so he keeps quiet, instead opts for simply shrugging.

“Luke, don’t you think it’s time to stop this? This weird crush you have on the guy? Like, yeah,  I get that he’s cute, but he’s two years older than you, captain of the football team, oh, and also, don’t forget, _you have never actually spoken to him._ ” Calum says, as they abruptly come to a halt in front of their lockers.

Luke cringes at the harsh words, but also knows Calum kind of has a point. It’s just, Ashton’s so, so, _captivating._ Luke’s eyes just automatically get pulled to the other boy whenever he’s in the room and he’s just so entranced by the way he moves, the way he talks. Luke doesn’t think it’s all that easy to just let him go like Calum’s telling him too.

Luke realizes that sounded a bit creepy and he visibly cringes again. Maybe Calum _does_ have a point.

Calum sees the pained look on Luke’s face and sighs again, sympathetically this time, “Luke, I’m sorry, that came out a bit harsh, I just, I don’t want you to get hurt, you know? I want you to be happy and I’m scared that this unrequited crush is going to end up hurting you more than you bargained for. “

 Luke sighs and nods. “I know, I just, it’s not that simple, Cal,” he says, glancing over to Ashton one last time as the older boy closes his locker, the one right across from Luke, before he heads off to class with his friends.

Calum closes his own locker and gives Luke a consoling pat on the back. “It never is, bro, it never is.” He says, before they head off to class.

\--

It’s been going on for more than a year, Luke’s weird crush thing on Ashton.

It all started in the first week of school, back when Luke was just a wide eyed freshman and Ashton was, well, Ashton. Not yet captain of the football team, but still the undeniable center of attention wherever he went, with his wide gestures and bright smiles.

The first time Luke sees him it’s just in passing in the school hallway. Him and Calum had been looking at their schedules, trying to figure out where they were supposed to go, when there was a bit of ruckus in the hallway and a group of shouting and laughing boys walked past them. Luke scanned them, noting they were obviously upperclassmen in the way they held themselves, with an air of a certain power over them.

Luke’s eyes eventually landed on what seemed to be the leader of the group, a boy with bouncy honey colored curls and a bright smile who walked just a step in front of the boys, talking loudly and gaining laughs from the other boys.

Luke can’t help but watch the way the boy moves, with this certain flair and confidence Luke knew he would never posses himself. It wasn’t cocky either, it was just this natural confidence that the boy seemed to posses that made him the center of attention, even in the large group surrounding him.

But then the boy was gone and Calum was trying to get his attention and they only had two minutes to get to their next class and it was on the other side of the building so they broke into a sprint and for the next few days Luke sort of forgot about the boy.

It was in the cafeteria, about a week later, that Luke saw him again. It was lunch time and Luke and Calum were sitting at a table in the back with some other freshmen and while Calum was excitedly chatting to them about their classes, Luke’s eyes absentmindedly scanned the room.

They landed on the boy again, the same he had seen in the hallway a week prior and once again he was entranced. He was sitting at the table with the popular kids, in the middle of the cafeteria.

Luke watched him intently. The boy had this aura over him, of confidence of fun, that Luke found hard to resist. He observed the way Ashton talked, grabbing the attention of the entire table (and Luke) with his wild gestures and captivating voice.

The boy laughed, a loud, giggly, bubbly noise that carried through the entire cafeteria and Luke couldn’t help but smile, slightly love struck. He was brought back down to earth by Calum poking him in the side, asking him if he was ok.

Luke nodded absentmindedly, glancing at Ashton one last time before focusing back on Calum and the rest of the table.

\--

Luke keeps seeing Ashton everywhere after that. In the cafeteria, the hallways, even a few times during music class, where Ashton would stumble in occasionally to use the drum kit in the soundproof room in the back (Luke curses whoever thought it would be a good idea to put a window in the goddamn sound proof room, he could really do without the image of Ashton’s muscles flexing as he hit the drums, thank you very much).

So maybe over the months he develops a bit of a crush on Ashton. He never talks to him, ever, they’ve never even made eye contact. He’s actually pretty sure Ashton doesn’t even know he exists.

It’s a road leading nowhere and he knows it. The crush he has on Ashton is ridiculous and it will never go _anywhere_ and he knows he should just take Calum’s advice and give up, but he _can’t_. Because whenever he tells himself he will get over Ashton one of Ashton’s friends will say something funny and Ashton will laugh and it’s all teeth and crinkled eyes and Luke’s so, so gone for this boy.

\--

Luke’s going to kill his mother.

Well, not really, actually, since she can’t help it that his eyes are so bad (“It’s all your dad’s side, honey. All his relatives are blind as moles.”)  but she was the one to convince him these specific glasses looked ‘super cool’, so it’s at least a tiny bit her fault, this mess he’s gotten himself in.

In all honesty, Luke thought the glasses were pretty ok too, just simple black rimmed glasses, but for some reason they’ve  caught the attention of the school’s residence bullies and that’s how Luke finds himself slammed against his own locker, a firm hand making sure he stays there as one of the bullies sneers, “Nice glasses, nerd.”

Luke suppresses the urge to explain to them that this is in fact the 21st century and glasses should be well excepted in society by now and the association of glasses with nerds should be gone at this point and also is being a ‘nerd’ really such a bad thing? But the metal of his locker is uncomfortably digging into his back and he knows if he wants to get out of here mostly unscratched he should probably keep his mouth shut, so he just mumbles, “Thanks.”

“Fucking loser.” The guy holding him against the lockers says, letting go so Luke is suddenly stumbling forwards before giving him one last shove, causing him to slam against his locker again and wince in pain. The bullies walk off after that, though. Luke sighs in relief and adjusts his clothes a bit, looking around if he can spot Calum yet.

Instead his eyes land on Ashton, who’s standing at his own locker, directly across from Luke, staring right back at him with an unreadable expression on his face.

Luke’s breath catches in his throat and he would very much like for the ground to swallow him whole somewhere right around now. Because _of course_ the first time actually looks at him, makes eye contact with him, he’s being shoved against the locker and humiliated because of his stupid glasses.

Granted, it wasn’t _that_ bad, but this would forever be Ashton’s first impression of Luke, being teased and shoved against lockers and Luke kind of wants to lie down and just cry for a bit.

Because if there had ever been any small chance that Luke would even do as much as _befriend_ Ashton, it had just flown directly out of the window. No way in hell would Ashton ever talk to a loser like Luke, who liked to keep on his own and wore glasses and got shoved against lockers, no, Ashton’s above that, above Luke, completely and totally out of his league.

Luke suddenly feels a bit sick.

He takes one last glance at Ashton, who’s _still_ staring intently at him, before pushing his glasses back on his nose an rushing off, not bothering to wait for Calum. He’ll see they boy in class.

Luke feels Ashton’s eyes still on him as he rushes off and he wonders if it would be weird to start crying in the middle of the school’s busy hallway.

\--

When Luke arrives at his locker the next morning, Calum’s already there. Which is weird, since most of the time Luke’s the first to arrive. Every once in awhile they’ll arrive at school at the same time and walk in together, but mostly Luke arrives first and waits at their lockers for Calum to arrive. Calum’s never first, though, but yet, there he is, casually leaning against his locker, his eyes searching the hallway, probably looking for Luke.

When Luke stops in front of Calum, he sort of expects an explanation, a reason why Calum’s already there, some wild story about his mother kicking him out of the house early because she was sick of her son always making it just in time, something like that, but Calum says nothing, instead launching in yet another story about the girl he’s  ‘sort of dating’.

Luke suddenly understands why Calum’s early when the bullies from the day before walk by and Calum suddenly takes a protective stand half in front of Luke, glaring at the group of boys that comes shuffling past.

Whether it’s Calum’s glare and protective stance, or the fact that Luke’s just not a really interesting target, they leave him alone today. Luke kind of regrets telling Calum what happened yesterday now, but he’s also a bit glad. Getting shoved against the lockers once is already bad enough, let alone two days in a row.

“I can take care of my own, you know.” Luke interrupts Calum, who had started telling some story about the girl again.

Calum expression softens and he sighs. “I know, buddy, I’m just, I’m worried about you, all right? You’re like my little brother, Luke, I have to stick up for you, make sure you’re ok, you know?”

Luke grumbles, but sends a small smile in Calum’s direction anyway. “I know, and I love you for it, it’s just, I’m ok, all right? I’m fine, I can save myself.”

Calum sighs again. “I just hate to see you down, Luke, you know that. And you looked so bummed yesterday and it pisses me off that those bullies made you feel like that, you know? I just want you to be happy.”

Luke hadn’t told Calum why he really was so bummed yesterday, hadn’t told Calum about his first eye contact with Ashton (which he didn’t even really savior, because he was too busy freaking out over the fact Ashton had caught him at such a bad time) and he’s not planning too, really, knowing Calum will just get even more worried. “Thank, bud.” He says instead, dropping the subject and turning towards his locker, opening it slowly.

A paper falls out, fluttering to the floor and landing in front of Luke’s feet.

He quirks a confused eyebrow and picks it off the floor, studying it closely. It’s a simple, hastily folded and very crumpled piece of yellow lined paper, obviously torn from a notebook. 

It’s defiantly not Luke’s, nor Calum’s, because Luke is sure neither of them own notebooks with green lined paper, plus Luke always puts loose papers in a separate folder so they won’t crinkle and he won’t lose them.

Curiosity has gotten the better of him now and he slowly unfolds the paper. There, written in a slightly messy handwriting he doesn’t recognize, is just one simple sentence.

_‘Fuck them, I think your glasses look cute.’_

It’s obviously referring to yesterday’s incident with the bullies and Luke blushes furiously over the fact someone saw that and was willing to take time out of their day to write Luke this little note in what apparently was an attempt to cheer him up.

It worked, a smile spilling over his face as he looked down at the note. He has no idea who wrote him this, he knows it isn’t Calum because he has known Calum since forever and this is definitely not his handwriting and he doesn’t really talk to anyone in school beside Calum, he’s pretty sure he doesn’t really have any other friends and especially not people who were there to witness what happened yesterday, but the hallways were positively crowded at the time, so it could’ve been anyone, really.

No matter who wrote it, it was cute and it was a compliment and a compliment is a compliment so Luke takes it regardless.

Calum raises an eyebrow in Luke’s direction. “Why you smiling like that?”

Luke doesn’t respond, just hands him the note and Calum smiles when he reads it. “Cute. Who’s it from?”

Luke shrugs. “No idea. Found it in my locker this morning.”  He says, scanning the hallway for possible cues as to who could’ve left this note, but, like always, his eyes are pulled towards Ashton instead, who’s apparently telling a story about a fishing trip he went on, if his wild gestures are anything to go by.

“Still nice.” Calum says with a nod, handing the note back to Luke, who tears his eyes away from Ashton to put the note is his ‘loose papers’ folder.

After that he grabs his books from his locker and heads to class with Calum.

The slight smile that had crept on his face after reading the note doesn’t really fade for the rest of the day.

\--

There’s another one the next day. The same paper, the same hand writing, but a different sentence, this time.

_‘I like your smile.’_

Whether it’s on purpose or not, Luke smiles just a tiny bit more than he normally does that day.

\--

The thing is, Luke thinks, as he stares down at what he thinks must be the sixth or the seventh note (it’s the seventh note. Luke knows this because the other six are neatly stacked in a box under his bed, for when he needs a pick-me-up), that he should probably find this weird.

This one reads

_‘Your legs are killing me’_

and Luke knows it should weird him out because some stranger is writing him compliments on small pieces of paper and shoving them in his locker and this one’s about his _legs_ for god’s sake and he should probably freak him out a bit, he should at least think it’s a tiny bit creepy, that someone writing things like this about him, that someone is apparently watching him without Luke knowing.

But in all honesty, he likes it. He likes knowing that there’s someone out there who willingly takes time out of their day every day just to boost Luke’s confidence a little (and he’ll never admit it, but he kind of needs that) and it’s flattering.

So he smiles and carefully puts the note away, grabbing his books and closing his locker.

Calum suddenly appears, completely out of breath, launching into some story that involved his alarm clock, vegemite and a beaver, but Luke’s not really listening, because he has spotted Ashton and he’s wearing a bandana and it looks really _really_ good on him.

Calum stops talking when he notices Luke’s not listening and instead opt for closing his locker and grabbing Luke’s arm to drag him off to their first class, forcing Luke to tear his eyes away from Ashton.

Luke doesn’t really care,  lets himself be dragged off to class without much fuss. At least Calum has stopped trying to convince him to get over Ashton. Because even though Luke’s still embarrassed about Ashton seeing his run in with the bullies the other day, he doesn’t think his infatuation for Ashton will fade soon.

\--

Luke’s pretty good mood gets stomped into the ground only a few hours later, by none other than his history teacher, who assigns him one hell of an essay, which means that he has to spend his free period in the library looking up information rather than spending it outside and enjoying the sun, maybe listening to some music.

It’s not that he hates the library, per se, he actually really likes it, it’s just, he could be doing so much more useful things right now, like, for example, absolutely nothing.

But no, he’s here, in the dark, stuffy library, looking for stupid books for his stupid history essay.

To top it all off he bumps straight into a pretty solid body when he’s heading towards the study tables, sending both himself and the books he was holding flying to the floor.

“Shit, sorry.” He mumbles, scrambling for his books immediately, steadfastly avoiding looking at whoever he just bumped into, scared of who he will see.

But then the person he bumped into is suddenly kneeling down next to him and grabbing some of Luke’s book. “Here, let me help, it was mostly my fault anyway, I wasn’t looking where I was going, I’m sorry.” the person rambles and Luke’s head snaps up because he _knows_ that voice. He’s never heard it personally directed to him but he’s heard it in the hallways enough times to know who it belongs to.

And indeed, when he looks up his eyes lock straight with Ashton’s bright, sparkling eyes.

“Hi,” Ashton says quietly, and Luke suddenly notices how close they are. Ashton’s right in front of him, in arms reach, holding out Luke’s books to him and Luke momentarily forgets how to breath.

“Hi,” he eventually squeaks, when he’s gotten over the initial shock of Ashton looking at him and Ashton talking to him and Ashton being so close to him and _fuck_ this is too much. “Thank you.” He hastily ads, taking the books from Ashton’s hands and quickly standing up, cheeks flushing.

It suddenly hits him what had happened the last time those eyes had looked at him, and he blushes even harder, figuring that Ashton must be convinced at this point that Luke’s nothing but an absolute loser who wears glasses and gets shoved against lockers and drops his books when he bumps into someone and who bumps into people in the first place and Jesus, why is Ashton still looking at him, still talking to him, he is literally the biggest loser ever.

He wants to turn around and leave, run right out of the library, as far away from Ashton as he can, but before he can move, Ashton scratches the back of his head and says, “You’re Luke, right?”

Luke _freezes,_ because holy fucking shit nuggets, _Ashton knows his name._ “I, yeah, that’s me,” he eventually stutters out, “How did you know?”

Ashton turns slightly red and turns his gaze to the floor, “I practice the drums sometimes during your music class. Your teacher seems to call out your name a lot.”

That’s it. Luke would very much like for the ground to swallow him whole like _right now_ , because the only reason Luke’s music teacher calls out Luke’s name almost every single time Ashton walks in is because Luke always ends up dropping _everything_ whenever Ashton walks in and yeah, that’s kind of really embarrassing.

“I’m Ashton,” Ashton says, completely unaware of Luke’s current state of pure embarrassment.

“I know,” Luke says, nervously pushing his glasses back on his nose, “You are, eh, like, you know, captain of the football team, basically everyone knows who you are.” He ads.

Ashton blushes, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. “Oh, yeah, right.”

There’s a bit of an awkward silence between them and Luke realizes that this Ashton is a lot different from the Ashton he normally sees in the hallways. This Asthon seems to be a lot more quiet, more reserved.

Luke thinks he might like this Ashton a bit more, especially when he’s nervously biting his lip like that.

“So, like, just assuming here, but are you heading for the study tables?” Ashton asks, looking up to Luke through his eyelashes.

“Y-yeah.” Luke stutters, pushing his glasses back on his nose again purely to keep himself from fidgeting.

“You, eh, maybe wanna join me? I’m at that table in the back,” Ashton says, guestering towards a table that seems to be littered with books and papers.

“I just have to go grab a book I need and then I’ll be right back and I though we could maybe, like, study together? Just, I’ve seen you around a few times and you seem like a pretty nice guy and I would really like to get to know you better. Unless you’re already planning on sitting somewhere else, that’s ok, I was just, like, I don’t have anybody right now and like we don’t have the same subjects or anything but it’ll be nice to have someone there when you’re studying you know, just to keep you sane, right? Oh my god, that sounded weird, was that weird? It was weird to ask you to sit with me like that, wasn’t it? Oh man I’m so sorry.” Ashton rambles and Luke’s just staring at him with wide eyes, not really believing what he’s hearing.

Suddenly he realizes the silence has lasted for too long and that Ashton’s still waiting for an answer, so he quickly speaks up. “No. I mean, yes. I mean, no, not weird, yes, I will join you.” Luke stutters out, smiling wide.

Ashton smiles back at him. “Great! Just settle down at the table, feel free to shove some of my stuff aside to make room, I’ll be with you in a sec.” He says, and then he’s gone, disappeared behind the rows and rows of bookcases.

Luke stands there for a good minute, frozen in place, staring in the direction Ashton’s disappeared in, trying to grasp what the fuck had just happened.

Eventually he shakes himself out of his confused, dazed state and walks towards Ashton’s table, carefully moving books and papers aside to create some space for himself before placing the books he’s still holding on the table and gingerly sitting down.

He occupies himself with grabbing a notebook and a pen from his backpack, reorganizing the books on the table to see which ones he’s going to have to read thouroughly and which ones he can just skim through, all to distract himself from the fact that _motherfucking Ashton Irwin wants to get to know him better._

He tries to remember how to breath, absentmindedly flicking through the books in front of him to keeps his hand occupied, to keep them from fidgeting, when Ashton falls down in the chair across from him, dropping the books he had apparently just retrieved from the library right on top of the mess that was already sprawled across the table.

Luke looks at the mess on the table with a quirked eyebrow and an amused smile on his face.

Ashton sighs when he sees Luke’s expression. “Yeah, yeah, I know, but I swear there’s a system in it,” Ashton says, confidently pulling a paper from the stack, looking at it for a second before frowning and placing it back down, “Sort of.” He search through the stack of papers more thoroughly now before finally pulling out another paper with a grand gesture. “Aha! There you are!”

The ridiculous looks on Ashton’s face startles a laugh from Luke and he quickly slams a hand over his mouth to muffle it.

It’s just, he’s a bit ashamed of his laugh. When he was little he laughed a lot, all the time, but then people started teasing him about his loud laugh, saying it was obnoxious and fake and since then Luke has tried to avoid really laughing out loud. He tries to stick to smiling and the occasional giggle, but sometimes things take him by surprise and startle a laugh out of him nonetheless, like right now.

He hides it behind his hand, praying Ashton won’t find his laugh weird, hoping Ashton’s not like the kids he used to know, judging him based on the sound of his laughter.

Ashton doesn’t comment on it at all though, which calms Luke down and makes him relax a little again, though he’s still a little bit on the edge because he’s currently having a conversation with _Ashton Irwin._

Ashton, who’s smiling brightly at Luke before placing his elbows on the table and leaning his head on his hands. Luke melts a bit at the cuteness of it. “So, Luke, what are you doing here on this fine afternoon? Like, don’t get me wrong, but the weather is beautiful and I feel like you’d be much rather be spending this period outside, wouldn’t you?” Ashton says and Luke sighs.

“History essay.” He says, the aversion clear in his voice.

“Fun.” Ashton comments dryly.

“Absolutely.” Luke comments, just as sarcastic.

Ashton grins. “At least you only have one things to do, I have like two essays, some science homework that’s long overdue and a biology test I haven’t even started studying for. Which might explain the, you know, mess.” Ashton says, gesturing at the table in front of them.

“I feel like you’ve brought this completely up on yourself.” Luke comments, smile playing at his lips and Ashton sighs in defeat.

“Yeah, but to be honest, it’s a combination of being a senior and being lazy. Like, I have so much work to do if I want to graduate, but it’s so _boring_.”

“Can’t wait to become a senior, then. “ Luke says, scrunching up his nose at the thought of even more work.

Ashton laughs, probably at Luke’s ridiculous facial expression, and it’s the first time Luke’s seen him laugh from so up close. He’s heard Ashton laugh like, a million times already and he has seen it too, but always from a distant. It’s like he’s been watching his favorite movie in 240p for over a year and suddenly he’s watching it in full screen HD and he’s actually going to die right there.

“It’s not that bad, if you do everything on time. Which, obviously, I don’t.”Ashton says, with a twinkle in his eyes.

“In that case we should get to work like, right now, instead of me distracting you any longer.” Luke says. As much as it pains him to say it, because he loves talking to Ashton and this might be his only chance, he’d also hate to be the reason Ashton’s failing in his senior year.

Plus he still has a killer essay to write himself. Though he doesn’t think he can really focus on that when Ashton’s _this close._

Ashton looks like he wants to say something, like he wants to disagree with Luke, but then his shoulders slump and he sighs. “Yeah, you’re right.” He mumbles, grabbing a notebook and some of the books. He studies the table for a few seconds and lifts a few things before sighing again and looking up at Luke. “Do you maybe happen to have a pen I can borrow?”

Luke shakes his head in mock disapproval but hands Ashton a pen nonetheless.

It’s quiet at their table after that, only interrupted by some occasional comments form either Luke or Ashton about ridiculous things they find in their books or silly writing mistakes they make and occasionally some groaning about how much school sucks and how they could’ve been outside right now.

All and all, it’s nice. Luke’s had a crush on Ashton for over a year now, but he’s only ever seen the loud, enthusiastic, public version of Ashton. And don’t get him wrong, he loves that version of Ashton, hell, that’s the version he fell in love with in the first place, but this Ashton’s a lot quieter, softer, cuter.

This Ashton pokes his tongue out of his mouth in concentration and pulls funny faces at his work whenever he tries to figure out what to write next and Luke just falls in love even more.

He’s never hated the sound of the bell so much in his entire life.

Luke immediately jumps up when he hears it though, quickly shoving all his stuff in his backpack, earning a confused look from Ashton. “Shit, I have math now, which is like, on the other side of the building and the teacher already hates me because, well, I s _uck_ at math, so I gotta run.” He says, hastily hoisting his backpack on his back before rushing off. “Bye Ashton, talk to you later!”

His brain momentarily short circuits when he realizes what he has just said, what he has just implied. He basically just flat out assumed him and Ashton will speak again. Hell, what if Ashton wanted to get to know Luke but has now come to the conclusion Luke’s actually really boring and never wants to speak to him again? After all, all they did what study and speak a few words and oh my god Luke’s such a loser.

But just as he’s about to disappear behind the bookcases on his way to the exit, thinking of multiple ways he can disappear of the face of the earth without anyone noticing, when he hears Ashton yell “See you later, Luke!” which earns him a “Shh!” from  the students around him and a smile from Luke.

It doesn’t promise anything, ‘see you later’ is a pretty vague expression, maybe Ashton just means he’ll never speak with Luke again, only politely nod at him as they pass each other in the hallway, but it’s _something_ and that’s all Luke’s asking for, really.

\--

“You are actually shitting me right now.” Calum says to Luke when they’re standing at their lockers the next morning. “That didn’t actually happen.”

Luke had finally mustered up the courage to tell Calum what had happened yesterday with Ashton and he’s already regretting it.

“Believe me, I pinched myself enough times to know one hundred percent sure I wasn’t dreaming.” Luke says, opening his locker. Like always, a note flutters out and he catches it before it hits the ground, smile on his face before he’s even read it.

_‘You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen’_

“And he seriously asked you to sit with him? Oh my god,” Calum smiles brightly at Luke, “I demand to be best man at the wedding.” He says with a grin.

Luke rolls his eyes and shoves the note in his folder, “Shut up you dick, there isn’t going to be a wedding. It was probably just a onetime thing, I’m probably like, never speaking to him again.”

Calum raises an eyebrow, looking at something behind Luke, “I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” he says, but before Luke can ask what he means, someone taps him on his shoulder.

Luke turns around and his breath catches in his throat when he finds himself face to face with none other than Ashton Irwin.

“Good morning,” Ashton says, smiling brightly. He’s wearing a beanie today and it makes him look insanely fluffy and cuddly and Luke momentarily wonders if it would be weird if he crawled into his locker and refused to ever come out of there ever again.

“Hi,” he eventually squeaks out, and he can hear Calum snickering somewhere beside him.

Ashton doesn’t seem bothered by Luke’s incompetence to speak though, instead rummaging through his shoulder bag before turning back to Luke with a triumphant  “Ha!”, holding up a pen. “Thanks for letting me borrow it, I found my own pen again, it was like, on the bottom of my bag somewhere, so I don’t have to use yours anymore. Thanks again.” Asthon says, handing Luke the pen with a bit of a shy smile on his face.

 “I, uh, yeah, thanks, no problem.” Luke stutters out, taking the pen from Ashton.

He stuffs the pen in his backpack, expecting Ashton to leave, but he’s still there when Luke looks back up, just sort of awkwardly hovering there. Luke raises a questioning eyebrow and Ashton blushes slightly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I was wondering if maybe you wanted to join me again today? In the library? Because I had a lot of fun yesterday and I actually got some work done and that’s kind of a miracle, so I thought maybe we could do it again?” He asks, and Luke momentarily wonders if this is a joke, if maybe Ashton’s pulling a prank on him or some sort of bet, anything, because this cannot actually be happening.

But then Ashton smiles and his dimples are on full display and Luke forgets all his doubts.

“Yeah, I, uh, I’d love to, yeah.” Luke wonders if he’s going to be capable of stringing normal sentences together in Ashton’s presence. Yesterday it went pretty ok, but today he’s a blubbering mess.

He blames the beanie.

Ashton smiles brightly. “Great! See you there, then.” He says and Luke nods eagerly, a bit too eagerly maybe, because he can hear Calum’s snort, even though his best friend pretends to be insanely interested in the contents of his locker.

“Great!” Ashton says again. “Bye, Luke.”

Luke smiles. “Bye Ashton.”

There sort of standing there, grinning at each other when someone shouts “Yo Irwin! You coming?” It’s one of Ashton’s friend, the one who dies his hair like every two weeks. Right now it’s a soft lilac color that looks surprisingly good on him. Luke thinks his name is Mick or Mitchell or something.

“Coming!” Ashton shouts, turning back to Luke one last time. “Bye, see you later.” He says before running after his friends.

“I cannot fucking believe you two, oh my god.” Calum says, shifting his attention from the back of his calculus book to Luke, laughing loudly.

Luke crosses his arms. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing,” Calum says, shaking his head, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing.”

Luke huffs and grabs his back. “Come one, we’re going to be late.” He says as he stalks off. Calum laughs before running after him.

\--

When Luke wanders into the library later that day, he’s all fidgety and nervous about the prospect of seeing Ashton again.

Calum hadn’t really helped, constantly making jokes and stupid innuendos, which only made Luke realize he’s like, not funny _at all,_ whatsoever. He doesn’t have this natural funny thing Calum has and his idea of jokes are mostly knock-knock based and even on that department he’s extremely rusty because Calum hits him in the face whenever he even attempt one in the first place, so there’s that.

He doesn’t even know why he’s even so worried about being funny or not in the first place while he should be focusing on trying to hold up an actual conversation, but Luke’s always been a boy with skewed priorities.

It’s just, yesterday, it was easy, talking to Ashton. It wasn’t planned, it took Luke by surprise, which meant he was mostly just working on auto pilot while his brain was in some sort of permanent state of ‘WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING’.

But now, now he knew it was going to happen, now he knew he was going to have to _talk_ to Ashton and the more he thought about what he was going to say, the more he realized how _boring_ he was. He had literally no spectacular or interesting hobbies, no special talents, _nothing._

He was just boring old Luke, the glasses wearing sophomore with an undeniable crush on football captain Ashton Irwin who was so far out of his league he might as well be living on Jupiter.

Ashton Irwin, who was already sitting in the library, same table as yesterday, when Luke comes to a stop in front of him.

“Hi,” Luke says, nervously pushing his glasses back on his nose.

“Luke!”  Ashton exclaims enthusiastically, earning multiple glares from the students around them. “Come on, sit down,” he adds, much quieter, sending everyone an apologetic look, while shoving papers and books aside to make room for Luke.

Luke sits down, grabbing his own stuff and placing it on the table. “So, how are you today?” Ashton asks, doing that adorable thing again where he leans his head on his hands and stares intently at Luke.

“I, yeah, good. How are your, uh, multiple assignments?”

Ashton grins, “Let’s not talk about that, please. I’m trying this new method where I ignore my assignments in the hope they’ll go away, and instead occupy myself with much more useful activities. So far I’ve made three paper airplanes, one paper crane that looks like it’s going to start crying very soon, and I learned the lyrics to Gloria Gaynor’s smash hit ‘I Will Survive’, which will probably come in handy some day, for some reason. I hope. Anyway, the assignments are still there, so I’m probably going to teach myself how to write Elfish next, in the hope it will scare the assignments away.”

Luke lets out a burst of laughter at Ashton’s ridiculous story and quickly slaps his hand in front of his mouth to hide it. “In the worst case scenario the assignments will still be there but then at least you’ll know how to write Elfish. Which, you know, always useful.” Luke says, desperately ignoring his loud outburst.

“I can always start writing my essays in Elfish, just to piss off my teachers.” Ashton says, mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Not recommended if you’re planning on graduating, though.” Luke notes, and Ashton’s eyes suddenly get a bit distant.

“Yeah… Hey, did you hear the rumor about that new lunch lady yet?” Ashton says.

Luke’s a bit confused by the sudden change of subject but decides to let it go, instead just shaking his head.

Ashton immediately launches into a story that includes a cousin of a friend of a friend and pumpkin pie and rat poison, but Luke’s not sure, since he’s not really listening to what Ashton’s saying at all.

No, instead he watches Ashton’s hands as he paints the story in the sky, a mesmerizing combination of wild gestures and small finger movements that make Luke feel like he’s watching a movie.

Suddenly Luke realizes Ashton has stopped talking, looking curiously at Luke while Luke’s eyes are still focused on Ashton’s hands, who are now resting on the table, unmoving.

“I, uh, didn’t know that, no.” Luke stutters out, no idea what Ashton had even said in the past ten minutes. “We should probably start, like, working?” He says, gesturing towards the stuff in the table in a desperate attempt to hide his embarrassment.

Ashton pouts and goes to open his mouth, but Luke cuts him off with a stern look. “No Elfish.”

Ashton grumbles and grabs his book, but Luke knows he’s not really pissed when he sees the amused fondness in Ashton’s eyes.

It’s the same as the day before, just more relaxed. Despite Luke’s nerves he can feel him and Ashton getting more comfortable around each other as they slowly test the boundaries of this new found friendship.

Luke has a short mental breakdown when he realizes that ‘Oh my god, he’s _becoming friends with Ashton Irwin’_ but he forgets all about it when Ashton throws a paper airplane in his direction and giggles when it hits Luke’s head.

It’s comfortable and nice and Luke actually finds himself laughing a few times, but still slaps his hand over his mouth every time he does.

During the end of the period Ashton starts consistently throwing more and more paper airplanes his way (somehow he has managed to create an entire fleet while simultaneously finishing one of his essays) and Luke decides it’s probably time to stop trying to get stuff done.

“You are a shit thrower.” Luke says, after the ninth airplane flutters past his head. After the first one hit bulls eye, Ashton has failed to hit Luke again.

The students around them look increasingly more pissed with every airplane that hits the ground, but they can’t really do anything because this is _Ashton Irwin,_ the most popular guy in the school, who could ruin them with a snap of his fingers (though the more and more Luke gets to know him he starts to doubt more and more that Ashton would actually do something like that, he’s way too nice). Luke prays the librarian doesn’t show up, though, because then they will most definitely be kicked out.

“I’m building up the suspense,” Ashton says, as the tenth airplane flies over Luke’s shoulder. “This way it’ll be much more of a shock when I finally hit you.”

Luke rolls his eyes to this logic and after a quick glance on his phone, starts putting his books in his backpack.

“Wait, no, don’t leave me, I’ll stop throwing them, I promise!” Ashton exclaims, slightly panicky.

Luke smiles and shakes his head. “I have to go, period’s almost over and I have my next class on the other end of the building, remember?”

“Oh, right,” Ashton says, “Yeah, I, uh, I just, I was wondering..”

“Again tomorrow?” Luke finishes for him, wondering where this sudden surge of confidence is coming from. He guesses it has something to do with the fact that he’s not quite ready to let  this potential friendship go yet.

Ashton smiles brightly, “Again tomorrow,” He confirms.

Luke smiles back at him and they’re just sitting there smiling at each other for awhile when suddenly the bell rings and Luke’s rushing off with a wave and an over the shoulder “See you later!”

\--

It’s more than a month later and Luke’s sitting at the same table he has been sitting at every day during the same period, Ashton across from him.

A week ago Ashton had called the table ‘their table’ and Luke had to remind himself how to breath multiple times.

It’s just, he’s watching Ashton scribble down notes in his notebook and he realizes that over the course of about a week, him and Ashton have become really good friends.

As in, he’s actual honest to god friends with Ashton Irwin.

If freshman Luke knew this was going to happen he would probably have an aneurism.

The most amazing part is that their friendship doesn’t even limit itself to this small corner in the library, no, when Luke arrives at his locker in the morning he’ll wave at Ashton, who’s always already standing at his. Sometimes they catch each other’s eyes in the cafeteria and they’ll share secret smiles and small waves and it’s a bit overwhelming, sometimes.

The only downside of this whole thing is that Luke just finds himself falling even more and more in love with Asthon Irwin and he literally has _no chance_ whatsoever.

“Yo, Luke, you there?” Ashton, asks, effectively shaking Luke from his thoughts. He hums and looks at Ashton, who has a mischievous glint in his eyes and is holding up a piece of sloppily folded origami paper.

(Luke decides not to dwell too long on the fact that Ashton has apparently come in the possession of origami paper somewhere along the way.)

Luke studies the paper, not really sure what he’s suppose to see, when Ashton loudly exclaims, “It’s a penis!” and the students around them throw a loud “Shh!” in their direction.

Luke can’t help the laugh from bubbling out of his mouth when he realizes that this slightly wonky, badly folded piece of paper is indeed a penis and quickly slaps a hand in front of his mouth.

Ashton suddenly frowns and places the origami penis on the table. “Why do you always do that?”

Luke frowns too, confused. “What?”

Ashton vaguely gestures in Luke’s direction. “That thing where you hide your laugh behind your hand, why do you do that?” Ashton asks, genuinely curious look on his face and Luke freezes because he didn’t really think anyone noticed, let alone _Ashton Irwin._

“I, uh, force of habit?” Luke cringes at the uncertainty in his voice.

Ashton frowns again. “No, that’s not it, there’s something else,” he says, and Luke can tell he’s determined.

Luke sighs, knowing Ashton’s going to get it out of him no matter what. “It’s just, when I was a kid I used to laugh a lot and my laughs pretty loud so people started teasing me for it? Like they called it obnoxious and annoying and fake and they would imitate it so I kind of stopped?  And whenever I laugh I just try to hide it.” Luke says, looking anywhere but Ashton.

“I know it’s pretty dumb, but it’s just, I guess I’ve become a bit self conscious about my laugh? And now it’s just kind of become a habit, I don’t know, I don’t really mind.” He adds, and suddenly he feels a hand on his chin.

Ashton lifts up his head and he’s looking at Luke with these sincere eyes and Luke’s freaking out because holy shit Ashton’s touching him and looking at him like that holy shit holy shit.

“Hey, don’t think like that, yeah? Those people were not only stupid for teasing you like that, but they were also wrong. No one’s laugh is loud or obnoxious, they’re all sounds of happiness. Heck, you laugh could sound like the apple text message noise on repeat and I’d still love it, because laughing means you’re _happy_ , and your happiness is never something bad, all right?”

Luke’s trying very hard not to cry because _fuck_ he really needed someone to tell him that. The ‘thank you, thank you so much, I love you’ is at the tip of his tongue, but instead he blurts out “My laugh doesn’t actually sounds like the apple text message noise.”

Ashton laughs and lets go of Luke’s face, to Luke’s dismay. “Good to know.” He says and Luke smiles.

He hopes the look in his eyes convey just how grateful he is that Asthon Irwin exists.

\--

It’s, well, it’s not like he’s doing it on purpose, per se. It’s just that Ashton’s words have hit home a lot more than he’s willing to admit and well, it makes it easier.

So, Luke laughs again, without covering it up.

He knows Calum has noticed, because Calum knows him inside out, but all he’s done is raise a questioning eyebrow when Luke laughed loudly at something he had said, which Luke is grateful for.

It sounds stupid, but it’s almost liberating. He didn’t really know his laughing thing was really such a burden on him until he got rid of it and it’s really, really liberating.

The last confirmation that his laugh is a good thing, comes from who Calum refers to as his ‘secret admirer’, the one who leaves notes in Luke’s locker.

The notes are still coming, varying from things like ‘looked up at the clear blue sky today, it reminded me of your eyes’ to ‘I like the shirt you wore yesterday’, but this one’s definitely one of Luke’s favorites.

It flutters out of his locker about a week after Luke’s stopped covering up his laugh and once again Luke manages to grab it before it hits the ground.

_‘I thought your smile was the most beautiful thing on the planet, but then I heard you laugh.’_

Luke doesn’t know why these little notes mean so much to him, but he tucks this one away in his special folder with a smile on his face nonetheless.

He doesn’t think he’ll ever find out who writes these notes, but he thinks he’s ok with that. It’s just nice to know that someone out there cares for him.

\--

“Hey Ash, can I borrow a piece of paper?” Luke asks Ashton about a week later, when he realizes he’s somehow managed to go through his entire notebook in like less than a week. They’re sitting in the library at their usual table, like always.

“Hm, yeah, sure,” Ashton says, absentmindedly, focused on the book he’s reading, throwing a notebook Luke’s way, “Just tear one out.”

“Thanks,” Luke says, catching the notebook mid air, flipping to the middle of the book so he can tear a piece out when he notices something. It’s nothing special, just some notes Ashton’s made during English class, but it’s the combination of the handwriting and the notebook paper that makes him freeze.

“Ashton?” He very cautiously asks, and when Asthon looks up, Luke can see his face going from curious to sheer panic in less than a second when he takes in Luke and the notebook.

“Yes?” Ashton asks, but it comes out as a hopeless squeak and Luke knows.

Because he knows this, this combination of handwriting and paper, has seen it so many times over the past two months, knows it like the back of his hand, has looked at it more than enough times when he felt shitty and tired and needed a pick-me-up.

The notes.

“It was you?” He whispers, and Asthon bows his head to avoid looking at Luke.

“Yeah.”

Luke’s not sure what he should feel right now, whether he should feel happy that it’s Ashton, or betrayed that Ashton never told him, so he settles for confused. “I, uh, why?” He eventually asks.

Ashton’s still not looking at him when he says, “You looked like you needed it and I just, I was just meant to write that first note, you know? It wasn’t supposed to end up like this, I just, I just happened, you know? You looked so happy after the first one and I just kept writing them, you know? They just kept coming and coming and you didn’t seem freaked out by them and I needed a release, I guess?” Ashton finally looks up and Luke can see the worry in his eyes, like he’s afraid Luke’s suddenly going to hate him.

“Release?” Luke rasps, not really sure what’s happening right now.

“I just, oh god I’m going to sound so weird, promise you won’t hate me.” Ashton says, and Luke nods, unable to speak.

“Well, it’s just, I’ve kind of had a crush on you for awhile? Like, I think since, maybe, freshmen year? I just saw you in the hallways and I though ‘wow, you are really cute’ but I never really pursued it since I just thought, like ‘he’s probably not interested?’ but then like, few months back I saw you being bullied and it was like, I couldn’t not do something, you know?  I was so mad but there’s nothing I could do because we weren’t friends so it’s not like I could walk over to you and tell you you’re awesome, that would’ve been weird and awkward, but I needed to do _something,_ so I deciceded to leave the note in your locker.” Ashton pauses to take a shaky breath.

“And then you read it and your face just _lit up_ you know?  And like, I’ve never seen anything like it and I just needed to see that again so I kept writing notes and it was a great way to tell you how I felt about you without really _telling you,_ you know? So I just kept doing it. And when I bumped into you in the library I just had to talk to you so I invited you to sit with me and god, Luke, you were everything I expected and more, I just.” Ashton shakes his head in disbelief.

“You are such a wonderful person Luke, and you are so beautiful and genuinely nice and wonderful and I don’t even have words for it, Lukey, you’re just perfect and it makes me sad that you can’t see that, because fuck, Luke, you make my life a whole lot better. So, I guess that’s it? I’ve been in love with you for quite some time and then I got to know you and now I’m even more in love with you, so yeah, do what you want with that information.” Ashton finishes, a bit awkwardly, his eyes averting to the surface of the table.

Luke’s stunned and does the only thing he can think of doing.

He gets up.

“Thought so,” Ashton mutters, but then there’s suddenly a hand on his chin and Luke, who has made his way around the table so he’s right in front of Asthon, lifts Ashton face so they’re looking right in each other’s eyes.

“I’ve kind of been in love with you sine freshmen year too.” Luke says and then he’s pressing his lips to Ashton’s and he has no idea where he’s getting the courage from, but it’s probably something sappy about Asthon bringing out the best in him.

Not that he’s complaining though.

\--

(Luke still finds notes in his locker every morning, except they’re a lot more inappropriate now.

_‘I like your butt. It’s mine.’_

Reads the most recent one. Luke shakes his head, but there’s a fond look on his face and he carefully tucks the note away in his folder.

Sometimes they’re a bit cuter, things like _‘Pick you up at six for our date :)’_ or _‘You’re so cute I’m so glad you’re my boyfriend xx’_ but whatever they say, they’re always followed by Ashton circling his arms around Luke’s waist and mumbling a ‘Good morning’ into his shoulder blade.

Luke spins around and grins at Ashton. “Good morning to you too, beautiful.” He says, before pulling him into a kiss.

“Gross.” Calum comments, earning a ‘fuck you’ from both Luke and Asthon.

“Hey babe, see you in the library, yeah?” Ashton asks, and Luke nods.

“Yeah, see you there.” He says, pulling Ashton in for one last kiss before they both head off in different direction.

“So fucking smitten, both of you.” Calum mutters. Luke hears him and laughs loudly.

“You’re just jealous.” )

 

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr [here](http://skatertotluke.tumblr.com)


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